Carpet-stretcher



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES C. F. NIESCHANG, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA.

CARPET-STRETCH ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 384,926, dated June 19, 1888.

Application filed March 9, 1888. Serial No. 266,742.

To 41% whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES C. F. NIEs- CHANG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fort Wayne, in the county of Allen and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Oarpet-Stretchers, of which the following is a specification. My invention relates to an improvement in that class of carpet-stretchers in which a movablehead, adapted to engage the carpet,is drawn by a lever along a fixed bar which issecured to the floor.

The objects of my improvement are to cause the movable head to advance by both the forward and backward movement of the lever,

to dispense with the usual ratchet-teeth on the fixed bar, and to so arrange the lever that its action shall not operate, as heretofore, to force the movable head downward, all as hereinafter fully described.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation. Fig. 2 represents a rear elevation.

A is a straight and smooth bar having at one end a sharpened hook, B. i

C is the movable head having projecting from its under side sharp spurs d d,which engage the carpet, and a standard, E, projecting from thecenter of its upper side.

Standard E is provided with a hollow hub, F, which projects from opposite sides of the standard, and fits easily over bar A, so as to slide longitudinally thereon. Standard E is also provided with mortises hand i,arranged above and below the hub.

H is the operating-lever, which is pivoted to bar A atj, near the hook B.

J and K are a pair of ratchet-bars which are pivoted at one end to lever H at equal dis tances above and below the fulcrum j, the ratchet-teeth Z being on the under edge of each bar. The free ends of the ratchet-bars pass through the mortises h andi in standard E, and the ratchet-teeth engage the side of the standard farthest from the operating-lever. Each ratchet-bar thus operates as a retainingpawl while the other is moving to take a new hold.

(No model.)

In operation hook B is driven into the floor close to the base-board. Spurs (Z on movable head 0 are forced into the carpet, and the movable head is then drawn along bar A toward hook B by means of lever H and the ratchet-bars J and K, which alternately en gage standard E of head A at each forward and backward movement of the lever. \Vhen thelever is released by the operator, both of the ratchet-bars J and K operate as retainingpawls to hold the head inposition on thebar.

Heretofore in this class of carpetstretchers the fixed bar A has been provided with ratchet-teeth, and the operating-lever and a retaining-pawl have been secured to themov able head, the lever engaging the ratchet-teeth in succession. By such a construction the movable head is carried forward at one movement only of the lever, and the pressure on the operating-lever operates to force the movable head downward, thus causing the spurs which pass through the carpet to stick into or drag heavily along the floor or the under carpet or lining. By my improvement-thesedifficulties are avoided. Theoperating lever being pivoted to the fixed bar near the point of attachment to the floor, the tendency is to lift the movable head rather than to force it downward, and both the forward and backward movement of the lever operate to carry the Witnesses:

H. P. Hoop, V. M. HOOD.

CHAS. O. F. NIESOHANG. l 

